Bentos are multi-course meals packed into a decorative or compartmentalized box. Making bento could jazz up your lunch and make it more nutritionally balanced. Just Bento has a new free course on getting started with practical, everyday bento.

The first lesson in this series of weekly articles covers the essential rules of bento: It should be tasty, reasonably healthy and nutritionally balanced, look neat and appetizing, quick and easy to prepare, and inexpensive. Sounds like a perfect homemade lunch, right?

There's also an assignment to list bento-friendly foods for each food category (a template is provided), which should make assembling your lunches easier and ensure you've got enough variety.

Although bento comes from Japan, your lunch bento doesn't have to be Japanese. And while some people go all out cutting foods into crazy shapes and configurations, bento doesn't have to be fussy or complicated.

Hit up the link below for more details on getting into the bento-making habit.